It was very simple – Alonso didn’t expect Hamilton to be that competitive in his first year.

He told me at the beginning that it was my decision to sign a rookie like Hamilton, but that it could cost me the constructors’ championship.

Fernando was calculating everything, but not that Lewis would challenge him. That affected him massively.Ron Dennis

He added his relationship with the two drivers had been more “fatherly” compared to what had gone before with drivers like Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost:

When I started as a team owner I was younger than my driver, Graham Hill, so he showed me the ropes.

With Lauda, Senna and Prost I had a sort of comradely relationship – it was again age related.

With Hamilton and Alonso it was more of a fatherly tie. Prost and Senna were completely different in their backgrounds and character. They eyed each other suspiciously and didn’t trust each other. I let their track rivalry happen.Ron Dennis

Dennis also denied it was difficult for him to give up control of his team last year after two decades in charge and described new team principal Martin Whitmarsh as “the perfect successor”.

For one thing, this must be the first time Ron Dennis actually admitted and reacted to having managed Senna and Prost wrongly, even though he still seems reluctant to admit he was not managing the Alonso/Hamilton relation the best way he could have for the interest of the team.

Also Ron confirms that even Withmarsh was a bit supprised to find himself as the team principal at that presentation.

A pretty interesting inverview, better than some of the others on the official F1 site.

…and by all accounts Ron didn’t help smooth over the cracks compounding a volatile situation!
For me its interesting that he “…let their track rivalry happen.” seems he did the same with Lewis and Fred.

I know I’m gonna get slammed for saying this but I’ve always thought the 2007 ‘saga’ was Dennis’ fault to the greater extent. I’m not saying Alonso was innocent and Hamilton certainly wasn’t innocent either but I believe it went from ‘simmer’ to ‘boil’ (to quote young Mr Hill) due to Dennis’ total mismanagement of the situation.

I know 90% of people on this site are going to crucify me for saying that as they probably believe it was ALL Alonso……

I agree as well. Sure Alonso was taken aback by this wonderrookie Hamilton, and is still not completely over it. Hamilton wanted too much to win (i think his father was pushing here as well) instead of giving Alonso more room to be the dominant guy and learn from him.
But Ron could and should have acted differently to avoid it boiling over.

Both drivers have admitted they made mistakes that year recently. I think Ron is not yet ready to say the same for himself (how long did it take with Senna/Prost?)

I think Alonslow will be happier beating Hamilton to a close fought WDC more than he will enjoy winning another WDC itself , that’s how much he wants his revenge on Hamilton. btw both great drivers , which we all know , and that’s also why they clashed so spectacularly at a team with the best car in that year.

We may have heard Hamilton shout down the team radio more than any other driver but we don’t hear every transmission for every driver.

They are more likely to broadcast clips featuring the top drivers or those at the front of the race as there will be more interest in those clips.

Also they have to decide if it is suitable to broadcast, as has already been mentioned some will contain swear words, or may not be in English.

I can’t really recall drivers really shouting down the radio, they have to speak louder than usual because an F1 car is a noisy place, and of course sometimes the drivers are upset when they are speaking to their team.

Digressing a little, I don’t understand why they don’t use the microphones (or whatever they are called) that attached to your throat and just amplify your voice box like the army use. It would mean you wouldn’t have to shout over the engine.

Well, Dorian if you employ someone and he tells you it would be your fault if you did not win the main prize because you employed a rookie and if this rookie turns out to be a challenge for this employee, would you still help him out? I guess not.

BTW, this really confirmed what we were all guessing all these years that Alonso was taken unaware by LH ;-)

The spy-saga, team order disobedience at Hungary, the Spa and Brazil blocking by Alonso were just the result of that aftershock.

As a pretty experienced manager and team leader (self praise!) i certainly would support the experienced guy i pay a lot to excell and make me win and listen to his ideas, while guiding the Rookie to use his talents as best as he can as well without giving him everything he wants.

i agree entirely with you ron dennis made his choices consequently proved mistakes mclaren really wanted an british champ sure ham as the material to be a wch but please mclaren pulled some strings and tricks and are damaging the sports image dont know if they are guilty or not but everyone things so

A new quote of real truth to be used endlessly in british forums for the coming years.

Of course Alonso should’ve been surprised at the first moment with Hamilton speed. Anyone, not only Alonso would have thought the same. What followed after was a completely different story…

But events are favouring Dennis (Alonso being passionate again after facing another ‘correct’ decission now from stewards, it doesn’t matter he’s right or not, truth is not important nowadays) and he has chosen, surprise, to ‘release’ this info right now.

yeah he openly admits he was lewis father figure. he tries to claim being a father figure to fernando yet it was said at the time he didnt speak to fernando after august of 07 (so a bad father then)

so despite him openly saying he is a father figure to lewis. people will still claim the team wasnt in favour of lewis lol.

i dont blame lewis for that the oppisite in fact. he was smart to take advantage of the situation and to stir it in such away that alonso had to leave. it was that brilliant tactics that allowed him to battle for title in 08 without a challenging team mate. which he won cos he lost no points from the otherside of the garage.

The team did not favour either driver, they were on equal terms. They might have favoured Gonzo if he had`nt put his foot in his mouth at the start. And he engineered his exit from McLaren all by himself.

Half of Mclaren’s legacy (for my generation at least) is 2 red&white cars crashing into each other… Having 2 top drivers competing for championship supremacy in your team is always a good thing. You may lose the odd title, but the publicity is always huge. The fact that people are still discussing the Senna/Prost affair is proof.

Personally ive always admired Mclaren and teams like Williams who let their drivers get on with it and the consequences be damned. Letting drivers race is fundamental to those teams and Alonso certainly underestimated that.

Alonso lost any credibility a long time ago with his actions, a great driver, a poor human being. But you have to say Senna had some of these traits also and Prost, just maybe in an age when less was known about what really went on.

“HUman Being”. Why do we all use this phrase here ? Grow up guys. Drivers arent saints. They are here to win and when they dont, they are allowed to voice their disappointment/feelings. THe only wrong thing Alonso did was unnderestimating Hamilton. And all other things he did was TIT FOR TAT. I respect Ham for his talent and Alo for his determination and bluntness

And all those things developed in the background and silently banned like flexible rear wings, amazing gearbox and engine features, who knows what kind of suspension things and intensive cooperation with Bridgestone to get the tyres to suit them. Not to forget interesting tactical use of the rulebook as well as the technical part.

Not a big fan of them, but i do acknowledge they were pretty good at the time

Yes Tod,for once I agree with you.BUT!! you would choke rather than say why Ferrari have lost the competency and innovative thoughts to quote you above!!
The reason is,to make it easier on you,a certain driver left them,his initials are MSC.Now don’t choke over your tea!!!!

perhaps hes past his best? no one says “alonso is worth half a second” anymore. Its tough on track now, before it was just beat Michael, now its beat Lewis, Jenson, Vettel, Webber, Kubica. All drivers capable of beating MS in his prime and all very capable of beating Alonso

This is further evidence that Ron Dennis is a nice man as well as being successful. finn
His nice guy image was previously displayed with the original flying finn, Mika Hakkinen.
Mika nearly died in 1 of Rons cars. Ron stood by Mika, for all those years. Mika delivered Ron 2 WDC`s and constructors titles. It took Mika years, and years to finally deliver a win. Mika nearly died after an incident, and with the help of the Mclaren team Mika delivered in 1998, then AGAIN in 1999. I miss the flying finn in action. His replacement .
Kimi, was not an equal. Just a stand in.
Big up

After Lewis beat Fernando at Bahrain, the storm clouds were starting to gather. The following race was the Spanish GP, and hoping for an edge, Fernando persuaded Mclaren to exclude Lewis from any scheduled test sessions for the up-coming Spanish GP at Catalunya. That exclusion didn’t help Fernando, because he still lost to Lewis.

It is a shame that the drama of 2007 has caused people to forget Alonso’s incredible performances that year, e.g., Nurburgring. He had an amazing year, but people still talk more of his feats with the lousy Renaults the next two years. I’m sure he lays this injury at Hamilton’s feet as well.

In my opinion, Alonso over-estimated the support he was going to get from the Mclaren team. The equal driver policy was perhaps the biggest shock he had. I guess he was surprised that he wasn’t the number 1 driver on a team in spite of being the only World Champion on the other grid. And so was I. Ron Dennis should have given Alonso no.1 status in his first year atleast.

I do not doubt Hamilton’s talents at all. He is definitely better than Alonso in terms of raw skills. But a year of being an apprentice to Alonso would have done him a world of good. For starters, he would not have gone win-less for 6 races in 2010.

Are you serious? Why be an “apprentice” to anyone when you can challenge for the title? Drivers don’t owe each other nowt unless it’s a Schumacher/Barrichello situation. Rookies are not obliged to play second fiddle to veterans nor veterans play mentor to rookies. Prost didn’t get preferential treatment over Senna despite already being an established champion so why should Alonso expect preferential treatment that Prost, Lauda, Hakkinen and even Senna didn’t get. If Alonso hadn’t started whingeing he might already have been a 4 x world champion.

You should also appreciate the background from which Alonso was coming from.

2-time World Champion, just defeated the great Michael Schumacher in equal machinery in a tensely fought year. Coming from a team like Renault where he was Flavio’s golden boy and number 1 driver of the team every weekend, he was a pampered driver.

In 2007, he was the only Drivers’ Champion on the grid. And he was paired against a rookie. Not just Alonso, but any other driver would have expected to be automatically no. 1 in such a team. Any other team would have automatically made Alonso their number 1 driver. But Alonso was in the one team that didn’t!!

I feel Alonso’s expectations of the Mclaren team (although pretty high and bordering on the unreasonable) were what any driver’s would be if he were in Alonso’s shoes.

And you would have thought that perhaps Ron Dennis had learnt some driver management skills himself after he made the same mistake 20 years back. He himself let the Senna-Prost rivalry simmer within the team. Ron did not lose either the constructors or drivers title then, but he did end up lose the driver’s title this year.

The Briatore point is interesting. Singapore ’08 certainly showed the lengths he was prepared to go to keep Alonso happy. But if Alonso’s expectations of McLaren were unrealistic because he was used to that unusual degree of preferential treatment, it’s hardly McLaren’s fault.

Agreed Keith but from Alonso’s perspective with Hamilton being trumpeted in the press as Ron’s aprentice and the shock of his speed from the first practice session together,he just could not accept that things were equal. Hence the initial suspicion and eventual bitterness and blowup. Who knows -maybe before Alonso signed Ron talked to him about “coaching Lewis”!!

It now proves that whatever happens, happens for Good.
Had the relatioship between Alo and Ham havent gone sour, they both would be sitting in Mclaren and winning the world championships (that we all would have certailny liked). And now when both of them are bitter rivals, we get to see and (hear) all the good racing and bashing on the radio and the press conferences. Its all good. One thing is sure, F1 needs people who speark their minds. Even myself would have reacted the same way Ham did in Malaysia and Alo in Valencia. We dont want them too be politicians, do we ?

Hamilton is a BORN RACER from day 1 he came into F1 he didn’t need to learn anything from Alonso as he proved in his rookie season just losing out by a single point then going on to win the next season he was learning on the job himself race by race (impressive).Nigel Mansell is just a HATER,to say a comment like that its just plain to see he’s jealous,when people say bad comments its just a testament to how good a race driver Hamilton is. Every team mate he had can testify to that as former world champions Alonso and Button can only play second fiddle to him with his raw speed and overtaking maneuvers(exciting) give Hamilton a fast competitive car and he will beat all in his wake including Vettle (oh yeah McLaren team need to stop messing up his pit-stops unlike RBR).